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The captured animals must be
reintroduced into the wild at the earliest after ascertaining their origin, and
a thorough investigation should be undertaken to destroy this illegal wildlife
crime racket and culprits punished as per law.

The elusive caracal (Caracal
caracal), arguably the rarest cat in India, is one of the least known mid-sized
carnivores in India, in terms of its ecology, distribution or behaviour. There
are few people in India who can claim to have seen one in the wild, and this
includes forest officers and wildlife biologists who have spent years working
in known caracal habitats. So rare is this animal that a single sighting is
major news across the wildlife fraternity as well as in the media. Given this
background, we were stunned when news trickled in yesterday that an
unbelievable five caracals were recovered in Mirzapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The story was first broken by
Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation, popularly known as Vindhya
Bachao, an environmental NGO working in the Mirzapur landscape and at the
forefront of wildlife conservation of this little-known region that is
afflicted by rampant mining, encroachments and the presence of various power
projects.

Sometime on the evening of the 8th
January 2017, an SUV was stopped for a routine-check by the policenear
Bharuhna village, a few kilometers from Mirzapur town, on NH-35 in
light of the upcoming elections in the state. When the police insisted that the
occupants show them the goods they were transporting, the visibly nervous
occupants of the vehicle tried fleeing. While two managed to escape, one
individual by the name of Abdul Arif, a native of Hyderabad, was caught. What
was recovered from the SUV was astounding — six wild cats in six small cages,
covered with gunny bags. The police were at a complete loss in identifying the
cats; some believed the animals to be lion cubs, others thought they were
exotic pumas! The forest department was called in and unfortunately even they
were equally baffled. With the information provided by the forest department,
every local media house in the region reported (and continues to do so) the
recovered animals as ‘jungle cats’ and ‘a leopard cub’! As this confusion
continued, a local journalist took images of one of these wild cats and sent
them to us. We were shocked beyond belief when we saw the pictures and found
them to be of caracals! We were informed that out of the 6 cats
recovered, five cats looked the same (caracals) while one “looked like a small
leopard”, which later was reported to be a leopard-cat.

Update/Addendum: Last evening (11th
January 2017) we accessed the first photos of what we had been told
was a leopard cat, and to our amazement realised that it was infact a Serval,
an African medium-sized cat. This presence of an African cat in the seized
consignment further complicates this entire episode, and now the geographic
origin of the 5 Caracals is being investigated (given Caracals are also
found in Africa).

This seizure raises important
questions — where were they captured from, what was their final destination,
what smuggling route do they take, how rampant is this trade, and what is the
purpose of this trade? The emergence of new information about an African Serval
raises doubts over how an exotic wild cat species was smuggled into India, or
if they are being domestically bred illegally to cater to a domestic (and
possibly international) exotic pets market.

The distribution of caracals in
India is little known. Out of the few studied habitats, they have been most
often reported from parts of Rajasthan and the drier parts of Madhya Pradesh.
The official version presented by the department, as reported in the media, is
that the animals were brought from Bihar and were destined for Hyderabad. However,
sources on the ground, some of whom were involved in the raid, claim that the
animals were being brought from Varanasi. Moreover, despite the recent update
on the identity of one of the cats being a Serval, some sources on the ground
still believe that the caracals, however, could be sourced from around Mirzapur
after being been trapped by one (or more) of the many local poaching gangs
active in the area and were now being smuggled out.

The forest department officials
and other concerned agencies are investigating all possibilities regarding the
origin of these Caracals. Caracals are not unknown to Mirzapur and they, along
with the now extinct Indian cheetah, have been historically reported in the
Mirzapur region. A specific note from 10th Aug, 1919
published by G.O. Allen published in JBNHS serves as a precious record of
caracals and the extinct cheetah in the region. Thus caracals are not unknown
to this part of the country including from similar neighbouring landscapes like
Bundelkhand, Jharkhand, Chhotangapur and Sambalpur in Orissa. A lot of the
habitat that falls in the Mirzapur division is ideal caracal habitat — scrub
and open dry forests — which, coupled with the secretive nature of this cat,
makes us believe that caracals could be surviving here.

These territorial forests are
also home to other flagship (schedule 1 species) such as leopards
and sloth bears, the latter being fairly common. Those interested may read more about the
history of caracals in eastern India in this article in Zoo’s Print
Magazine.

As for the fate of the captured
cats, the future course of action is being charted out. The department is now
planning on temporarily shifting the animals to Lucknow zoo (based on an
interim High Court order) while they determine the origin of this contraband —
a critical piece of information that will determine if the caracals will be
released at all, and the location of their release. Pending the completion of
investigation, the animals should be kept in a large, open enclosure rather than
a typical zoo cage.

Also, should the investigations
regarding the origin of these caracals conclude them fit for release, then for
post-release monitoring, they should be fitted with GPS-collars so that their
movement and rehabilitation can be tracked. Such telemetry studies from other
carnivores in India, such as leopards and jungle cats, is pointing towards a
remarkable resilience and adaptation to human-modified landscapes. It’s
possible that the caracal may also be one of these species, or it may be more
similar to desert and Indian foxes in being a hyper-habitat specialist. Only
detailed ecological studies will allow us to determine this.

Finally, and perhaps most
importantly, we strongly recommend a thorough and independent investigation
into this matter to unearth the entire roots and links of this smuggling
racket.

Summary of recommendations:

The exact origin of the cats
should be determined. They should be released after ascertaining its origin.
The caracals should not be consigned to captivity.

They should be kept in a largish
enclosure in readiness for a release into the wild.

For post-release monitoring, the
animals should be fitted with GPS-collars to help gain insights into the
distribution and movement of caracals in Uttar Pradesh.

A thorough investigation into
this blatant wildlife crime racket should be carried out, and the culprits
punished as per law.

Debadityo is an environmental activist / founder of Vindhya
Bachao Abhiyan and is closely associated with conservation issues of Mirzapur
region. Raza is a Jharkhand-based conservationist and a keen student of India’s
wildlife history.

Originally published by Conservation India on 9th January, 2017 which can be accessed from here

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